This is a new 8 lesson series that teaches a beginner how to create a professional website using WordPress and the Thesis theme 1.85 for WordPress. If you are an independent professional, solo-preneur or small business owner who wants to create their own website then this course is tailor made for you. We focus on the specific needs of professionals and small business owners when creating a website.
This series is a remake of Lessons 6-14 of our original Start Building Your Website Here series updated with the latest versions of the Thesis Theme and WordPress.
An example of the site we are creating can be found here. The site is a portfolio site for an architect, but the concepts can easily be used by contractors, engineers, real estate agents, insurance agencies and business coaches. The course will teach all of the tools and skills necessary to completely build a site like this.
The actual course begins with a WordPress website already installed on a domain and with the Thesis theme installed. If you aren’t at that point already please go through Lessons 1-5 of the Start Building Your Website Here course. We have versions of those lessons for BlueHost, HostGator and InMotion Hosting.
Lesson 6 – Installing the Thesis Theme
- Purchase and Download the Thesis Theme
- The Benefits of Using the Thesis Theme
- More Benefits of Using the Thesis Theme
Lesson 7 – Organizing your Site
- The kind of site we are creating – Solopreneur, Professional services
- The importance of Good Site Organization
- How our site is organized
- Using WordPress Tools to Organize the site
- Create the pages
Lesson 8 – Setup the Appearance of your Site
- Understanding the parts of a Thesis Page
- Set up the Site Layout and Appearance using Thesis Design Options
- Add a Header Image
- Add a Favicon
- Create the Menu
- Style the Menu using Design Options
- Install the BYOB Thesis Simple Nav Menu plugin and BYOB Thesis Full Width Backgrounds plugin
- Understanding the Full Width Framework
- Configure Header and Footer backgrounds
Lesson 9 – Add Content to your Site
- Using the WordPress Text Editor
- Adding Text from other Software
- Styling Content for Readability, Using Heading and Lists
- Inserting images and other media
- Developing Your On-Page SEO
Lesson 10 – Understanding and Using Plugins & Widgets
- Understanding WordPress Widgets
- Types of WordPress Widgets
- Understanding WordPress Plugins
- Installing Plugins
- Activating Akismet Anti-spam Plugin
- Install and configure the BYOB Thesis Footer Widgets plugin
- Add Contact Information using a Text Widget
- Create a Call to Action using a Text Widget
- Add a Video using a Text Widget
- Install and configure the NextGen Gallery plugin
Lesson 11 – Add Style and Content to the Home Page Using Plugins & Widgets
- Change the Home Page Template
- Configure the Thesis Feature Box
- Install and configure the BYOB Thesis Feature Box Layout Plugin
- Add a Slideshow to the Feature Box
- Add a Call to Action to the Feature Box
- Add Styling to Widgets using the BYOB Thesis Widget Styles Plugin
- Add Attention Boxes with the BYOB Thesis Shortcode Content Widgets Plugin
- Add text, images and links to a Attention Boxes
Lesson 12 – Add Blog Functionality to the Site
- WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS)
- Organizing Content in WordPress
- Displaying Content in WordPress
- Add Blog Functionality to the Site
- Set the Display Style for Posts and Archive Pages
- How to use blog related widgets
- Control which widgets display on which pages
Lesson 13 – Integrating your Site with Google
- Using the Akismet Anti-Spam Plugin
- Add a contact form using Contact Form 7
- Style the contact form using BYOB Thesis Contact Form 7 Styles Plugin
- Create a Sitemap
- Create a Google account
- Configure Google Analytics
- Tour Google Analytics
Lesson 14 – Administrative Tasks
- Configure Google Webmaster Tools
- Tour Google Webmaster Tools
- WordPress Backup Basics
- How to backup your site manually
- How to backup your site automatically
- How to upgrade plugins
- How to upgrade the Thesis Theme
- How to upgrade WordPress